A Winnipeg city council candidate says he takes full responsibility for posting misogynistic, homophobic and anti-Semitic content on social media a decade ago and wants voters to know that has changed. Omar Kinnarath, a community organizer running to unseat incumbent councilor Cindy Gilroy in the Daniel McIntyre ward of central Winnipeg, said he’s a better person than he was from 2011 to 2014, when he tweeted disparaging references to women, gay men and Jews. . While those posts have been deleted, screenshots continue to circulate through social media. Kinnarath says he owns up to his actions, repudiates his own statements and understands the harm he caused. “It’s not right to talk like that. You know, you hurt people when you talk that way or express those things, and I’m just trying to learn from the people around me and be better and more sensitive,” he said. in an interview earlier this week. “I just want people — the voters and the general public — to realize that I’m a real person. I am not like the typical politician who tries to hide or avoid such things. I face these things head on. “ These scripts show long-deleted tweets by Omar Kinnarath, who is now running for city council. (OmarX204/Twitter) Kinnarath said toxic masculinity played into the way he was socialized, and he hopes voters in the Oct. 26 election will give him a chance to prove he’s learned. “I know in my work in anti-racism, where people are called out for racism, you always have to give them room to improve and become better people and not think like that,” he said. Tara Mann, a former romantic partner who has a child with Kinnarath, says he is indeed a better person. She described him as a good father doing good work in the West End and said it would be a shame if his old tweets prevented him from being elected.
Tweets present a challenge: expert
The combination of the volume of his offensive tweets and how recent they are make Kinnarath an electoral challenge, says one reputation management expert. Sally Housser, the senior director of public affairs at Alberta-based Canadian Strategy Group, said that while the general public may be willing to overlook sexist, racist or homophobic statements issued decades ago, few reasonable people would have tolerated some of Kinnarath’s tweets a decade. before. The council candidate is doing the right thing by accepting responsibility for his actions, he said, but voters will ultimately decide whether he has made genuine efforts to educate himself and reach out to the people affected by his words. “It really boils down to what feeling can you leave voters with? Do they think you’re real or not? And I mean, that’s pretty much an unquantifiable factor, but it’s a key one,” Husser said in an interview. Sally Housser, senior director of public affairs for the Canadian Strategy Group, said Kinnerath is doing the right thing by accepting responsibility for his tweets, but that won’t guarantee voters find him credible. (Submitted by Sally Housser) Kinnarath said he was waiting to answer for his old tweets during this election because he had to answer for them for several years. “Having dealt with this issue in the past and feeling the scrutiny of the public and the media, I definitely feel it prepares me for the scrutiny of public office,” he said. He also said that he has been the victim of hateful comments himself and acknowledged that they are especially harsh because he is a Muslim and a person of color. “The things I said were horrible, that’s for sure. But the things they said to me over the last seven to eight years? It’s bad,” he said, referring to threats of physical violence. “And these people have no remorse. They have no intention of learning or getting better or understanding people.”
